


From The Streets

by toughguyhuh



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Past Abuse, Prostitution, hopefully a well deserved happy ending???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-09
Packaged: 2018-04-13 09:13:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4516227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toughguyhuh/pseuds/toughguyhuh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world before the Shameless-verse, Svetlana is a young prostitute struggling with keeping off the streets. After essentially being rescued by a rich family that intend to protect sex workers, she has to find herself and work through personal issues. She deals with the transition into "normal" life while her fellow prostitute friends move on just fine. Can she do it? Or is she doomed to a life of quick, meaningless sex forever?</p>
            </blockquote>





	From The Streets

**Author's Note:**

> Okay hi! So this is a short story I had to write for a fiction writing class in college. It's actually a sequel to another story that has nothing to do with Svetlana, but I just love this character so much, I had to come up with a life for her before the hell that is Terry Milkovich. So I guess if we're sticking to canon the ending of this story doesn't really matter. But I like to believe that Svetlana could get her happy ending. So for her sake, we'll just pretend like Terry never happens :)  
> *Side note: Since I was trying to create a character of my own (lol) I shortened her name to just Lana, and decided to keep it that way! Enjoy <3

Lana, sitting on one of the three Italian leather couches in the expansive living room, taps her tiny socked feet on the cold marble floor. She slowly turns the pages of her worn copy of  _The Crimson Petal and The White,_ for the third time this month. She finds herself relating to and being jealous of the main character, Sugar, a prostitute that successfully transitions from life on the streets into a life of luxury.

After twelve years of being pimped out to various old men all throughout New York, Lana was taken in out of the cold nine months ago by Samson Bellamy and his family. Samson provides Lana and her fellow illegal Russian ex-prostitute friends with food, shelter, and expensive clothes. Lana still struggles with their generosity and doesn’t believe she deserves it. His mansion-like home has been remodeled to form an apartment for the girls, separated enough from the Bellamy family, but allowing the two “families” to get together every once in a while.

Lana’s roommates, Nina and Veronika, speak in rushed Russian in the background as they prepare to go out for the night. _How can they still do that?_ Lana wonders. Ever since she got here, the thought of “going out” never turns out well. Last time she accompanied them on a night out, she found herself sleeping outside the apartment until the girls got home the next morning, not wanting to bother the Bellamy clan to let her in.

**~**

_The blaring techno music vibrated through the soles of Lana’s feet, sending chills down her frail spine. The black curtain covering the back “private” room of the club reminded her of the sheers William bought Sugar in her favorite novel; the ones he hung up in her room to block the world out._ Wouldn’t that be nice? _Lana thought_. To just forget about everything?

 _The people in the backroom were getting what they wanted. They might be finding love. Or maybe finding ways to get off without the complications of a relationship. Either way, everyone can leave happy, the only reward is their satisfaction._ I can do that. I can have sex with a stranger and walk away empty handed.

_Lana slowly made her way to the backroom, her manicured hand gripping the curtain tight. She slowly pulled it back to reveal her friends, both making out with men, close enough to their age to be deemed normal. A guy quickly approached Lana; brown hair slicked back, blue eyes shining in the strobe light. He looked a few years older than Lana, 25 at most. He was nothing special, but he’d work._

_"Hey beautiful. Can I buy you a drink?” Blue eyes leaned in to whisper in Lana’s ear. “Or, ya know, we could head over to that empty spot on the couch there, no drink necessary.” He winked at Lana and put his hand on the curve of her back, rubbing at the soft material of her velvet dress._

_Lana scoffed at the implications of the pervert and shoved the guy away from her, hard. She raised a perfect eyebrow at him and was about to tell him she needed the payment up front before she stopped herself._

_"You do not get to touch! My body’s not your toy!” Lana yelled, her Russian accent thicker when she gets upset. This statement was as much for herself as it was for the guy._

_“Whoa hey! I thought that’s why you were in here!”_

Yeah, so did I! _Lana turned and stomped out of the backroom, tossing the curtain aside so roughly she almost took it with her. She ran out of the club and hailed a cab, taking deep breaths to calm herself and get her heart rate back to normal._

**~**

“You are sure you won’t come with us?” Nina asks, huge smile on her face as she approaches Lana, blonde hair swishing from side to side. She hikes her short Gucci dress up, her new thong visible through the sheer material.

“I told you. No point in partying.”

Lana keeps her hazel eyes on Veronika, watching her as she checks her makeup in the oversized, wall length mirror. Nina stares at Lana, green eyes pleading with her friend to say yes. Lana lets out a quiet huff and picks at a loose strand in her ratty sweatpants. Using a long, bony finger as a bookmark, she shuts her book. She turns to her friend, coming up with new excuses for why she won’t go out with them.

“Come on Lana. All you do is sit in house. Have fun for change?” Veronika says, her English worse than the other two girls. She bends down to tighten the strap on her 6-inch heels.

“I rather stay here. In the house. If that is okay with you two?” Lana says, hoping they just leave her alone this time. _Liar_ , Lana thinks. _Sugar would go out. She’d have a great time_.

Veronika and Nina share a look and a rouge covered smile breaks across Nina’s face.

“If you no go out, we bring party here!” Veronika jumps in the air, clapping her hands excitedly. She runs out of the room leaving a trail of Chanel No. 5 in her absence.

“You do what you want. I am going to sleep.” Lana stands up from the couch, waves her tiny hand in a goodbye, and saunters through the long hallway to her messy bedroom. Turning on the bright light of her room, Lana places her book open on her wooden night stand and makes her way through the clothes scattered around her floor, until she gets to her dresser.

After putting on her favorite pajamas, the short set with yellow ducks, Lana walks to her four poster king size bed. She climbs in and pulls back her down feather blankets. Exhausted, she remembers she forgot to brush her teeth. _Damn. Too bad._ Lana sinks her head into her pillow, listening to the sound of Nina and Veronika’s laughter as they shut the iron front door behind them, the sound echoing through the empty apartment.

**~**

_“You get that girl over there and put her with the others. The one with the long brown hair.” The gruff voice came from a man with a long, scraggly beard. His face was bruised like he’d recently been in a fight._

_“Okay boss. I’ll do it. Now what do you want me to do?” A tall, lanky boy with a scar on his upper lip moved the girl to a group of others just like her. They all looked scared, and way too young._

_“Put them in the van. Make sure they don’t leave. And keep them in line.”_

_“Yes sir Mr. Kazimir. Whatever you say.”_

_As the boy loaded the girls into a white, beat up, Ford van, Lana silently weeped, wanting to go home._

**~**

Lana wakes up a few hours later, sweat forming on her narrow forehead.  Her breathing is jagged and her heart races as her past comes back to haunt her.  She would remember that day in great detail forever. She was twelve years old when her father told her that she’d be “going to America. Land of free.” She didn’t know she was going alone. Or that her life would revolve around giving herself to people for money.

Lana stares at the bright white ceiling of her bedroom, moonlight casting eerie shadows on the light purple tint of her walls. She focuses on a shadow that looks like a man’s hand, dancing slowly on her wall, caressing it. She begins to imagine a man touching her that way because he loves her and letting it happen without getting anything from it. She wishes she could be as open about sex as Nina and Veronika. They can go out and have sex with strangers and be okay with no monetary compensation. Since Lana hit puberty, that is all it’s been. There was never sex for her personal pleasure. This is what keeps her in the house because she cannot face that lifestyle like her friends. She wouldn’t know where to start.

 _But starting anywhere has to be better than this,_ Lana thinks. _It’s time to let go of the past._ Lana begins to realize she doesn’t have to see herself as a prostitute anymore. She can take control and release her “inner sugar.” _Samson didn’t rescue you to repeat history. He’s been good to you, now make him proud._

Lana throws the covers off her body and jumps down from her bed. She rummages through the clothes on her floor and prays there is something decent enough to wear. She finds a dark red dress with sequins; one Nina gave her, and puts it on. She straps on a pair of black stiletto heels and rushes to the bathroom. After brushing her teeth, Lana makes herself look presentable by combing the tangles from her curly hair and putting on a bit of makeup. Once she is satisfied, Lana puts on her shoes and texts Nina to find out where they’re at.

**~**

The girls hadn’t gone far from the apartment, so Lana quickly finds the bar they're in. She sees her friends and they immediately praise her for deciding to come out. Their hurried voices are background noise as Lana scans the bar for a potential lover. Someone she wants to stay the night with. And maybe have breakfast with in the morning. She spots a guy across the bar, red hair and green eyes, nursing a Bud Light and staring at the bar top. He looks shy and lonely, so Lana figures he’d be an easy target.

She walks over and jumps in the bar stool beside him, leaning her elbow on the bar top and resting her head in her hand.

“Hello,” she says to the guy, smile wide on her face.

“Hey.” His warm smile lights up his face as he takes in the new company in front of him.

“I’m Lana. What’s your name?” Right to the punch.

“I’m Will. Nice to meet you,” Will said, sticking his hand out to shake Lana’s. _Handshake? Sweet. This could work._

“Can I buy you a drink, Will?” Lana decides it's time to take charge.

“I’d like that,” Will says, calling the bartender over to them.

Lana talks to Will for hours about almost nothing, but it is the best time she’s had in a long time. Maybe ever. Will listens to her stories, fully immersed in what she has to say. Lana finds it shocking that he cares. Men usually only listen because they have to. 

They flirt with each other without being obvious about it and Lana really begins to like him. Lana asks Will if he wants to get out of there and for the first time, Lana is going to have sex for herself. Not money. Not Kazimir. Svetlana. 

_This could be it. He could be my happy ending._ Lana sees that her life could be as good as Sugar’s, if not better, because she is finally making that transition and having sex on her own terms. No amount of money in the world could give her freedom until she allows it. She's ready and she's willing. Now she just prays she won't fuck it up. The last thing she wants is to be back on the streets.

  
  



End file.
